One of the mistakes that we made when we first started screen printing t shirts was to buy the shirts a dozen at a time and fill orders as they came in. The thing you have to understand is that every penny you spend up front is eating away at your bottom line. If you only bout a dozen tees and then included shipping, the price per shirt goes up at least one or two dollars per shirt. If you are going to make your own screen print t shirt, you need to look at the big picture and start making your money right out of the gate.
Whether you are buying heat transfer equipment or a screen printing press, you already made that investment, so now you need to start ramping up profits. Rather than buy only 12 of Gildan men's classic heavy cotton t-shirts, you need to start looking at the bigger picture. Chances are pretty good you are going to need black shirts for many jobs, so it makes better sense to buy black bulk lot shirts in quantities of 100 or more to really cut back on the price per tee. Not only is the cost per shirt lower, you get free shipping too.
It doesn't matter what type printing press or heat transfer machine you use, if you are paying too much for your bulk blank apparel, then you are never going to make any money because the competition will be able to do the work cheaper. Buying bulk shirts means you get free shipping, so all that money you pay to ship a dozen and a dozen and a dozen all adds up. Plus, the more you buy, the lower the price per shirt. If you are getting more orders and can house a few hundred of each color, the cost per shirt drops dramatically while you continue to charge the same price per printed shirt.
One thing I do is hit the local flea markets for bulk blank tee shirts. Scored 100 white Fruit of the Loom tees, all new, got em for forty cents a piece too.
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